9 February 2010

Dear Urgent Action Member

Free Tibet has launched the next phase of its campaign to stop torture in Tibet. The campaign aims to help put an end to the widespread and routine use of torture in Tibet. British celebrities have lent their voices to support and raise awareness about the campaign.

Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Dominic West and David Threlfall, star of Shameless have recorded video testimonies of recent Tibetan torture survivors. The video recordings are featured on the Stop the Torture mini website available via our homepage. The four survivors whose accounts are told were arrested for a variety of reasons; Lhamo Kyab wanted to fly the banned Tibetan national flag over a sacred mountain, Tsering simply wanted to leave Tibet, and Pema and Phuntsog were punished for their alleged involvement in protests in 2008. They all endured horrendous abuse.

Juliet Stevenson reads the testimony of Tsering, a former Tibetan nun who was arrested while attempting to cross the Tibetan border. During interrogations she was accused of being a ‘slave’ to the Dalai Lama. She endured beatings and was held in solitary confinement for 25 days, chained to the floor. Tsering was released without charge one year later.

Tsering’s case is not an isolated example of torture and abuse.

The UN concluded in 2006 that torture was “widespread” in China and Tibet. Two years later and after the brutal suppression of the 2008 Spring protests, the UN extended its findings to state that torture was now also “routine”. The UN’s conclusion underlines that torture is not the action of a few ‘bad apples’ in the state security system but is a systematic policy by the Chinese state to create fear and thus silence those opposing China’s rule.

Following the crackdown on the Spring protests more than 1,000 Tibetans still remain unaccounted for, effectively disappeared. Put beyond the protection of law, without anyone knowing their location and without access to legal representation, they are at increased risk of torture.

Update on Dhondup Wangchen’s case (original Urgent Action 24 September 2008)

Leaving Fear Behind film maker Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced on 28 December 2009 by the Xining Intermediate People’s Court in Qinghai to six years imprisonment for “inciting separatism”. Due to your campaigning for his release and the international attention his case received his sentence is lighter than anticipated. Chinese authorities had neither informed Wangchen’s relatives that the trial was taking place, nor of the court’s verdict. While in prison Dhondup Wangchen was tortured. He was tied to a chair for four days and electrocuted on his palms.

Update on Phurbu Rinpoche (original Urgent Action 26 June 2009)

Phurbu Rinpoche was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment for “illegally occupying government land” and possession of weapons in December 2009. Phurbu Rinpoche denies the charges, claiming he was framed. His lawyers claim that his arrest was unlawful, the evidence against him unsound. According to his lawyers, Phurbu Rinpoche was tortured while in detention and his family threatened in order to force him to confess to the charges against him.

TAKE ACTION TO STOP TORTURE IN TIBET

1. Spread the word about torture. Learn about torture from our minisite: Forward the videos to your friends and family. If every visitor to the Free Tibet website forwarded the video testimonies to one hundred of their friends, the reality of torture would reach every Londoner in les than a month. If you don’t have access to internet, tell them about the widespread and routine use of torture in Tibet.

2. Write to the Chinese Representative in your country and condemn the widespread use of torture in Tibet and China.

Call on the Chinese authorities to end torture in Tibet;

1. Issue a standing invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
2. Account for the status and whereabouts of over 1,000 missing Tibetans who were detained following the 2008 mass protests.
3. Abolish all forms of forced education including patriotic re-education campaigns. Forced education creates the very conditions where torture is likely to take place.
4. Amend the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law to explicitly state that any confession obtained through torture is inadmissible in all proceedings.
 

Please send copies of any responses to Free Tibet to help us monitor the situation. 

Help us continue our vital work. Your participation in the Urgent Action campaign is essential for our success in putting pressure on political and economic decision-makers to improve the human rights of Tibetans. Running the Urgent Actions is possible because of the kind donations the participants make.
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